The Closer Creator James Duff: "Identity Theft"
The dual nature of human personality has been too well examined, and by far more intelligent people than I, to discuss it at any length here except to say it serves as the theme of our new episode. Those who prefer puzzlers will hopefully find themselves trying to discover whether a father has half-way confessed to a murder in a desperate attempt to protect his mentally ill son, or whether he's gaming the system to get a lighter sentence. Bruce Davison brings to life one of our more unusual villains with the kind of affecting performance for which he is justly famous. The case also includes a schizophrenic witness, who might also be a suspect, the return of Brenda's mother, Willie Ray played by the always-brilliant Frances Sternhagen, and a new character who will test Fritz's desire to have children.
Let me go back a few years. When Kyra Sedgwick first started on The Closer, she had just finished an independent film entitled Lover Boy. It was a startling movie with an equally startling performance by a young girl named Sosie Bacon, Kyra and Kevin's daughter. Playing her mother's character as a young girl, Sosie's film acting debut was subtly wonderful, a bit of light in an extremely dark story dramatizing the inevitable (and ironic) consequence of being raised by overprotective parents.
After watching the film, I suggested to Kyra that Sosie should immediately be put to work. Great child actors are hard to find; you need naturals who can stand up to direction without embarrassment; kids who can maintain their confidence while being constantly corrected. It's not all fun and games. One might even say the job has a dual nature: it's all make-believe; it's also really hard work.
Kyra completely disagreed with me, and was determined that Sosie should maintain a mostly normal life. I pointed out that having movie stars for parents had possibly already compromised the whole normal life thing but, in many important ways, I was wrong. Kevin and Kyra have accomplished what many people in their position find utterly impossible, and provided their family with a fairly ordinary existence under some pretty extraordinary circumstances. Maybe because, in performing their dual roles as actors and parents, being great at the whole mom and dad part has always come first.
Still, I had a story to tell that required a sixteen-year-old (who had to bear at least a passing resemblance to Kyra) and even though I had been told no way, I thought, "Well, I always had a summer job when I was growing up," and "Who better than Sosie, especially if we write it with her in mind?"
After much pleading on my part, her parents reluctantly decided that their daughter could join The Closer for a few weeks, as long as it no way interfered with school. The result of this arrangement, which was more like a treaty negotiation, allows us to challenge Fritz and Brenda as surrogate parents. Willie Ray comes for a visit, Brenda's difficult teenage niece, Charlene, in tow. Will the young girl's aunt and uncle be up to the daunting task of caring for a troubled adolescent? Will Charlene's stay encourage the newly weds to reproduce? Or end Fritz's push for children once and for all? Our heroic couple is of two minds about the opportunity, but that is how it should be in this episode.
Father and son, witness and murderer, crime scene and interview room, Charlie and Charlene: we double down everywhere we can in an attempt to unravel the riddle of duality. Who's really in charge of our individual destinies? The conscious self, which knows right from wrong, or its shadow, determined to have its own way? How does one control the other? And that's the only clue I'm giving to the real mystery inside "Identity Theft."
Lt. Michael Tao shines amongst a cast of great performances skillfully directed by our own Rick Wallace. See you next week, when Brenda's sweet tooth comes back with a vengeance in "Smells Like Murder."
— James Duff
